Singapore Grand Prix : Vettel surpasses Senna’s win tally
All the talk heading into Singapore revolved around whether Lewis Hamilton could equal Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 race victories, but in the end it was the man who’d moved level with the great Brazilian earlier in the season who stole all the headlines.
A faultless performance at Marina Bay gave Sebastian Vettel his fourth win in Singapore, his third victory of the season and, on his 152nd race start, his 42nd career triumph.
All of that means that Vettel now takes sole ownership of third place on the all-time wins list, with just Michael Schumacher (91) and Alain Prost (51) ahead of him.
Having taken pole on Saturday, Vettel led all 61 laps in the race, but was denied a fifth career ‘grand slam’ (win, pole, fastest lap, every lap led) when Daniel Ricciardo snatched fastest lap away from him on the 52nd lap. Were it not for the Australian’s intervention, the German would have moved level with Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher in the grand slam stakes.
Behind Vettel it was a real race of ‘seconds’ in Singapore – Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen scored their second podium finishes of the season (and their second ever podiums in Singapore), while for just the second time this year neither Lewis Hamilton nor Nico Rosberg finished on the rostrum.
